The invention relates to an arrangement for processing digital video data. In suchlike arrangements especially real-time processing poses problems due to the large number of datasets. This on the one hand because of the processing, but also because of the exchange of data between various components within the arrangement.
With state-of-the-art solutions there are particularly problems when components of various types are to be combined with each other in an arrangement, for example, video data interfaces, video hardware components which carry out certain dedicated processings of the video data, universally applicable video data computers and standard and control computers.
It is an object of the invention to provide an arrangement of the type defined in the opening paragraph having an improved data exchange between its components.
According to the invention this object is achieved in that the arrangement comprises at least one video data computer, at least one video data interface and at least one standard computer and/or one video hardware component between which video data can be exchanged through a fiber channel, and in that at least the video data computer and the video data interface(s) are controlled by means of at least one computer, more particularly the control computer via an Ethernet connection or an RS-422 connection.
For making a most universal use of an arrangement for processing digital video data and also for processing video data in real time in the fastest way possible, the arrangement includes video data computers which can be programmed universally and process video data in parallel as required. For supplying external video data and for transferring processed video data, at least one video data interface is provided. Furthermore, at least one standard computer is included which need not be modified and which may be, for example, a workstation or a personal computer. Special video hardware components are provided for taking over these fixedly assigned processing functions such as, for example, cross-fading, mixing, color blanking or similar functions. These video hardware components are suitable only for the dedicated purpose.
For a fastest possible data exchange between these components, the so-called fiber channel is provided according to the invention. This is a connection concept known per se for exchanging digital data, which is published in xe2x80x9cFibre Channel: Connection to the Future, The Fibre Channel Association, 1994, ISBN: 1-878707-19-1. The digital video data are exchanged through the fiber channel between the video data computers, the video data interface, the standard computer and the video hardware components. Since the fiber channel allows of a data rate of over 1 gigabit per second, the data exchange of the video data may be effected at such a rate that also a real-time processing and real-time handling of the video data by means of the arrangement is made possible.
Since at least several of the components, more particularly the video data computer and the video data interfaces, can be controlled for processing or handling respectively, the digital video data depending on their destination, a special control connection is additionally provided via an Ethernet connection between these elements and a control computer. The Ethernet bus concept is known per se and published, for example, in IEEE 802.3: Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision detection, New York, IEEE 1985axe2x80x9d. The use of the Ethernet for controlling at least several components and the fiber channel concept for data exchange between the components provides that the control and the data exchange within the arrangement is effected so that the arrangement can process video data in real time.
The concept of data exchange in the arrangement makes it possible, on the one hand, to integrate standard computers with standard interfaces. The selected interfaces or connection concepts are known, so that adapter cards, drivers, protocols and the like necessary for this purpose are available. The user has the possibility to select, for example, mixing, cross-fading, noise reduction, color blanking or other video effects by accordingly controlling certain applications. The transmission of the video data by the fiber channel makes a faster transmission possible than bus concepts. Furthermore, this transmission is independent of the video standard, for example, the picture format or display variants.
By an advantageous embodiment of the invention as defined in claim 2, an additional connection between the control computer and the video data computers, on the one hand, and the video data interfaces, on the other hand, are created by means of the PCI bus known in the PC domain. So doing, an additional data exchange between these components may be effected over this widened bus, which data exchange is especially used for exchanging control data. This PCI bus is a bus widely used in the PC domain which is described, for example, in the xe2x80x9cPCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Local Bus Specification 2.1, PCI Special Interest Group 1995xe2x80x9d.
The embodiment of the invention provided in accordance with claim 3 makes it possible to integrate hardware components which as such do not have an interface and certainly not such an interface for the fiber channel in the data exchange concept of the arrangement. For this purpose, an interface is inserted between the hardware components to be coupled thereto and the fiber channel.
Since a very fast processing of video data is made possible inside the arrangement because of the data exchange concept, according to the advantageous embodiment claimed in claim 4 video data may be processed in parallel in a plurality of video data computers because the data set necessary for this purpose can be transported not only within the arrangement but also to the exterior.